Darkly Dreaming
by thegenuineimitation
Summary: Three years after leaving Underland Alice is ready to return but a tragic accident forces her to admit she cannot abandon her responsabilities Above and go back. Until she is kidnapped by Stayne to be used as a pawn in his play for power. Alice/Tarrant.
1. Prologue: Six Impossible Things

**Darkly Dreaming**

**Prologue: Six Impossible Things**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Alice in Wonderland.**

**Author's Note:** Welcome readers, before you get started doing what you do best I have a couple of things to say.

1. I've got a few chapters pre-written so, time permitting, updates for these chapters should be fairly quick. Unfortunately I am a university student and I have a part-time job so after my pre-written chapters are used up it could be a bit of a wait for updates. Sorry, but that's life for you.

2. Each chapter will be told from a general POV but focus on a different set of characters, for example, Chapter One could be about how the March Hare makes soup and Chapter Two could be about how much Mirana enjoys the soup he makes. Hopefully by noting this it will avoid confusion.

3. Last but not least I thrive on reviews. It keeps my focus with a particular story and encourages creative flow. I am always happy to hear about suggestions for how the story could continue or pairings you might like to see and I take them all into consideration. I appreciate any constructive critiscim or advice about plot structure, characters, spelling, and grammar, seeing as I don't have an official beta and my unofficial one is occasionally laclustre in her corrections. Flames...I won't say that I enjoy flames, but I recognize that some people need to vent, and they do spur me to write more...so, go ahead and flame I suppose, if you really think it's necessary please restrict yourself to the one scathing review and then kindly stop reading since the story clearly upsets you.

**WARNING:** May contain, violence, character death, torture, sensual and sexual situations, and other mature subject matter. Note the rating people, if you're sensitive or young this is not the story for you especially as I get into later chapters!

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It was a beautiful winter's day and Alice was wrapped up in socks and blankets enjoying her tea, a delightful earl grey that chased the last of the early morning chill from her body, and setting her mind to the daily ritual of believing her six impossible things before getting started on her breakfast.

"One, I've managed to become a successful partner in my father's company and have seen his dreams and my own fulfilled at last, despite the protestations of my fellows, my clients, and the Ton as a whole and despite the fact they will never give me my due credit,"

She said aloud as she nestled herself comfortably in her window nook and delighted in the patterns she could make out in the thick frosting of her window.

The purchase of this cottage had been Lord Ascot's idea, and she thanked the stars she had agreed, because, after discovering that most of the businessmen in the Orient and other wilds of the world had no interest in listening to a woman they believed should be cooking, cleaning, and having babies, she had spent a good portion of her time in London manipulating affairs from the home office and letting Lord Ascot's younger son Jamie, who was only a year or so younger than her, take her place in the field.

That was not to say that she didn't go with him on occasion as indeed nothing could have stopped her from exploring the world, but she found herself at home rather more than she was comfortable with considering her mother and sister both insisted she marry before she became a mad spinster like her poor Aunt Imogene. She found herself undyingly grateful to have a little place all her own where she was free to do as she pleased and could escape the strictures of society.

"Two, I am twenty-two and have managed to thus far elude my mother's high-handed attempts at matchmaking," she said with a wry toast to Lady Luck.

They were indeed high-handed. Helen Kingsleigh had even gone so far as to try and arrange her marriage while Alice was trekking about Africa. Alice had of course put a stop to it as soon as she had arrived home. Helen was terrified that Alice would end up like Imogene a burden to the family and a source of never-ending gossip and ridicule.

While Alice thought it likely that she would always be a source of gossip she certainly wasn't anywhere near to becoming like her maiden aunt and she could hardly be a burden when her fortune rivalled that of many a wealthy Lord.

"Three, this time tomorrow I will be back in Underland,"

Alice grinned gleefully at the thought. Her business was complete, her affairs were in order and her ideas were written down and locked away where only the people who mattered could find them if they even needed them at all. Her father's dream had been realized and Alice had found all the answers she would find above ground.

It was time.

She was finally going back to Underland. Three years was really much too long to be away but she hadn't thought it would take quite this long to set everything in order. She missed her friends, and she missed the wildness of the place. She missed being around people who were quite as mad as she was.

She was interrupted from her musings and wistful memories of Underland by a sudden pounding at her door. Setting down her little blue tea cup she glanced at her clock, it was a little past seven, hardly the proper time for callers even if they were calling on her. The pounding came again and Alice fancied it rather desperate.

"I'm coming!" she called rousing herself from the contemplation of her mysterious caller.

After all if she wanted to find out who it was and why she needed to answer the door, anything less was purely speculation. So she padded to the door and opened it wide shivering as the chilly winter wind swept over her swirling her long golden mane, nightdress, wrapper and blanket around her.

The man at the door was tall and well muscled with a slowly paling tan and unfashionably long red hair pulled back into a queue. He was sweating and shivering with cold at the same time, his coat was mud stained in places and he had forgone both a shave and a cravat.

"Jamie! What are you doing here at this hour? Come in, come in, you're soaked and freezing,"

"My horse..."

"I'll tend to Tempest," Alice said slipping into the warm boots she's gotten from the Indians on her venture to the Americas.

"Alice..." Jamie protested.

Alice used her command voice, she had learned it from Mirana, she had had a pretty good one before Mirana had given her a bit of coaching but now most people seldom dared disagree or disobey when she used the voice.

"Go warm up by the fire and help yourself to some tea, I will tend to Tempest," she said firmly.

Before he could say anything more on the matter Alice had cinched her wrapper more tightly and hurried out into the front yard where the horse in question, a large dapple grey mare of mercurial temperament, was loosely tied to her hitching post. She was breathing hard and shivering lightly as the sweat dried on her flanks.

Alice was shocked. Jamie loved Tempest better than he loved his own mother, not that that was difficult considering the Lady Ascot's temperament, but he had raised her since she was a foal, he had been there for her birth, he would not have pushed her this way for anything less than a matter of the greatest importance.

"Come on Tempest let's get you settled," said Alice worrying her lower lip as she led the mare into the stable for a good rub down and a bit of hot mash.

When she returned to the cottage she found the fire stoked and Jamie pacing her kitchen his flame coloured hair hanging damply around his shoulders and his blue eyes flashing. He looked nothing so much like one of those caged tigers they had happened upon in India.

"Alice..." he said seriously.

"What is wrong, Jamie, don't you dare spare me!" she growled tossing her damp wrapper over her chair.

"Perhaps, you might want to sit down," he suggested with uncharacteristic gentleness.

"James William Christopher Ascot!" she snapped.

A hundred different horrible things flashed through her mind, and she couldn't bear not knowing for sure what was wrong and more importantly what she could do to fix it.

"Alice, it's your sister, Margaret," Jamie said softly ignoring her sharpness and taking both her hands into his own work roughened ones.

"Lowell?" Alice queried distressed golden eyes wide.

"No," Jamie laughed humourlessly, "If only it were that,"

"What is it Jamie? What has happened to Margaret?"

He drew in a deep breath.

"She and Manchester were going to a party, Lady Wiltshire's rout, their carriage took a corner badly and in the cold a weak strap snapped and the carriage broke from the team and rolled down a hill. Their necks were broken, and they weren't found until the next morning. She is dead, Alice," he told her softly.

Alice stared into his dark eyes for a long moment her hands falling from his grasp as her arms suddenly became too heavy to hold up.

_Four, I'll never see my beloved sister again._

A horrible keening sound filled her ears and her eyes stung with tears, it took her a long moment to realize that Jamie had wrapped her in his arms protectively and that she was the one making the awful noise.

"Margaret!" she screamed her nails digging into his biceps.

"Alice! Alice! You must listen to me!" Jamie called shaking her gently until her watery eyes focussed on his serious face, "Margaret and Lowell's will has been read, they have named you the guardian of their children,"

"Guardian...the little ones..." Alice breathed.

"Yes, you need to be strong for them,"

_Five, I can raise my sister's children._

"Where...where are they?" she demanded.

"Your mother was looking after them, they are at the house in London, I came as soon as I heard, the Funeral is set for three days hence,"

_Six, I can watch golden lively Margaret be lowered into the ground._

"I need to pack,"

She wiped the tears from her eyes with the lacy edge of her sleeve.

_Nothing is ever accomplished with tears._

She reminded herself. Instead she scooped up the teapot and with an incoherent cry she hurled it at the wall sending shards of china and splashes of hot tea flying. Jamie flinched back.

"I'm sorry Jamie, but I must go to my family," she said blankly.

"I will saddle your horses," Jamie said understandingly.

Alice nodded and swept from the room. In the safety of her bedchamber Alice leaned her head against another frosty window and allowed the selfish thought that wormed its way into her mind the merest whisper of a voice.

"You can never go back,"

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**AN:** Please Review!


	2. Chapter 1: The Attack

**Darkly Dreaming**

**Chapter One: The Attack**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Alice in Wonderland.**

**Author's Note:** Thanks a lot to everyone who reviewed, I'm glad you guys like it. As always please let me know what you think!

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"Auntie Alice!" called Brandon impatiently.

Alice tilted her wide brimmed straw hat back from her face and closed her book. She smiled up at her nephew.

"Sorry darling, my mind was wandering,"

It always did wander when she visited Ascot Manor as the memories were closer to the surface here.

"Where did it go?" asked Brandon curiously.

"To a land full of magic and mystery," she told him in her storytelling voice.

"Wonderland?"

"Yes, but of course it couldn't stay there so I've spent the morning trying to fetch it back,"

Alice had filled her charges' heads with bedtime stories of Underland and its inhabitants telling them of her first visit to the world beyond the Rabbit Hole. Her second visit she had deemed too scary for the children. That story she would tell when they were a bit older. More ready for the lessons it described.

"Now what have you got there?" she asked shaking her head as if that would clear it of wayward thoughts of her Wonderland.

"Look what I found!" Brandon said excitedly shoving a little green frog under her nose.

That's when Alice took in the state of his clothes, which were absolutely ruined being covered with mud and pond scum. His shaggy dark brown hair was alternately plastered to his head and sticking up in wet spikes and his dark eyes were glittering. Brandon was a strapping young lad of seven and prone to both mess and mischief, he had inherited his father's dark coloring but his features more closely resembled Margaret's, making him a very attractive child.

"Oh dear, Brandon, it is terribly rude to take people from their homes without their permission, you'd best apologise to the frog and put him back where you found him," Alice scolded him gently.

Brandon went wide-eyed.

"I didn't think of that, I'm very sorry Mr. Frog..." Brandon started hurrying away back towards the pond apologising profusely as he went.

"Where are your sisters?" asked Alice before he could get too far.

"Up the creek, having tea!" Brandon called.

Alice stood and set her book aside stepping barefoot and on tiptoe across the lawn and into the woods that bordered the well kept lawns and gardens.

Once she entered the woods she made a sharp left, detouring around the tree she couldn't bear to look at and the Rabbit Hole that could take her to the place that felt more like home than anywhere else. Instead she followed the sound of laughing voices and girlish shrieks interspersed her and there with splashes.

It had been four years since she'd accepted that she could never return to Underland, four glorious years filled with childish wonder and laughter as Alice raised her nieces and nephew the best way she knew how, with a little bit of madness. Her mother had of course protested saying that the children deserved normalcy and stability but Alice knew better, laughter and games and love were the things that should fill a childhood and if she encouraged a more active imagination that most at least the children would never end up like Hamish's prissy little son who had unfortunately inherited his father's regrettable nose and delicate digestion and didn't venture off the terrace for fear of grass stains.

Alice rounded the bend and came upon the mossy rocky stream that fed the pond. There in the dark shade was a tea party and two wild little girls who were carefully picking their way among the rocks the hems of their little dresses soaked and their wildly curling hair escaping from the confines of their braids.

"Auntie Alice!" cried Leslie noticing her and dashing out of the creek to throw herself into Alice's waiting arms.

Alice for her part scooped her up as if she weighed no more than a feather and held her close heedless of the state her dress would be in once she set the child down. It was only one of the stiff day dresses she kept for visiting her mother and the Ascots after all and would doubtless be out of fashion by tomorrow at tea.

"Lessie, you're all wet, what have you been up to?" Alice asked the five year-old whose tawny curls were just a shade darker than Margaret's dusty gold locks hand been.

"We were having a tea party but we were dreadfully hot," answered Ellen sheepishly putting on her own hat and looking around half-heartedly for her shoes and socks.

Ellen was concerned about pleasing her grandmother where the other two children were not and had taken to guiltily abandoning her own comfort for the sake of appearances. Of course she didn't have any problems keeping her animal friends company if the bushy tailed fox that came to peer suspiciously at the newcomer from behind her ankles was any indication.

"Not at all surprising," nodded Alice firmly, "Your brother felt it necessary to go swimming in the pond," she confided in the girls with a giggle.

"Brandon is silly," Leslie said with an answering giggle.

"Most boys are," Alice said knowingly.

"Do we have to go back to the house now?" asked Ellen wistfully.

The fox's ears perked up and it dashed away from the clearing with the ancient tea table and cracked china and the babbling creek. Alice narrowed her eyes suspiciously at the surrounding forest, something didn't feel right.

"Yes, I think that would be best, but Uncle Jamie is here and if you ask nicely I bet he will let you help brush Tempest," Alice said to mollify the girls.

They collected their hats and Alice started them racing through the forest, Alice of course stayed back to make sure that Lessie didn't feel left out and Ellen beat them both, but not quite as soundly as usual. Lessie's little legs were growing again and in a year or so she promised to be a challenge even to her long legged, coltish sister.

A sopping Brandon ran up to join them with a wide bright grin.

"Did the frog make it home safely?" Alice asked smiling back somewhat wryly.

"Yep,"

"Good boy," Alice praised ruffling his hair.

"Auntie!" he squealed indignantly squirming away.

The four of them returned to the house after a brief sojourn in the stables and met the disapproving stare of Lady Ascot and Hamish's wife and son with bright grins and cheeky waves. It took a good few hours to get everyone bathed and re-dressed for dinner however as the children were full of energy and eagerly recounting to Alice the afternoons adventures. Somehow Alice managed to get them all down in time, though with the withering stare Lady Ascot gave them one would think they had kept everybody waiting for hours.

As they were keeping country hours and only the family was present Lord Ascot had decreed that the children would dine with the adults and thank god he had as otherwise the conversation would have been stilted and boring until inevitably Lord Ascot or Jamie brought up the matter of business and Alice became embroiled in a debate over whether they should purchase one new ship or two and whether the trading post in Bangladesh really needed another supervisor or whether Mr. Sugdon's meagre supervision was sufficient. A question that was redundant as all the supervisors did was have their secretaries write the reports and Mr. Sugdon's secretary, the young Mr. Colson, was both thorough and diligent. Of course that raised the question of whether or not they should just fire Mr. Sugdon and promote Mr. Colson. Alice didn't have the heart to tell the poor boys that she'd already tripled Mr. Colson's salary and that Mr. Sugdon was looking to retire in a few years.

Instead Alice was well entertained and distracted as between the children, Jamie, and Lord Ascot the conversation was kept light and flowing.

Somewhere in between dinner and dessert however the pleasant atmosphere was quite shattered by a shrill scream from one of the maids a scream that was followed by more masculine cursing and screaming. Jamie and Alice were both on their feet in an instant and peering cautiously around the corner and down the hall.

There were bodies littered in the entranceway the butler, the maid, and three footmen among them and the foyer was filling up with armoured men and at the head of the band was a man about seven feet tall with a wicked scar running through his left eye.

"No!" Alice gasped moving away from the door.

"Alice? What's wrong?" asked Lord Ascot even as Jamie shut the door and with much shoving and grunting moved the serving table in front of it.

"Why is he here?" muttered Alice frantically.

"Children, come here!" she ordered sternly throwing open the nearest window.

"Here now what is going on!" shouted Lady Ascot shrilly.

"We're under attack Mother," Jamie said climbing up on a chair to remove the crossed swords from the coat of arms over the fireplace.

"ATTACK!" she shrieked.

Hamish and his wife fell into identical swoons and toppled to the floor in a tangle of limbs and red hair. Hamish's son burst into tears.

"Hush Begonia! Do you want to bring them down on us?"

"Children," Alice said urgently in a low voice, "I need you to climb out this window and run for the forest without looking back, as fast as you can,"

"What about you?" whimpered Ellen.

"There's a bad man here and he wants to talk to me, so I need to stay,"

"You know the bas...er...devil?" said Jamie incredulously.

"I'd rather I didn't," Alice answered darkly.

"YOU HAVE BROUGHT RUIN ON MY HOUSE!"

"BEGONIA! DESIST!"

Alice ignored the Lord and Lady Ascot and leaned in closer to her charges, speaking in a low urgent whisper.

"Go to the big tree stump, the one with the Rabbit Hole, and jump in the hole," she instructed.

"Why?" asked Brandon.

"There's no time to explain, but at the bottom of the hole there's a key sitting on the table and a little door, go through it, if you can't fit through the door make sure you are holding the key and drink a very small sip from the bottle on the table, and take a tiny crumb from the cake in the case on the floor out the door with you and once you are on the other side of the door eat the crumb. Once you're through the door find the Mad Hatter and tell him I sent you and that a man called Stayne has attacked us, can you do that?"

"Yes, Auntie," Brandon murmured.

"Good lad. The Hatter will know what to do,"

"I don't want to leave, I don't want to go," sobbed Leslie.

"Lessie, I will find you there, I promise you, go with your brother," she said giving the youngest a quick peck on the cheek.

The door rattled and Alice recognized the angry cursing to be Outlandish.

"Quickly!" she urged.

"Alice!" Jamie warned with a grunt as he and Lord Ascot braced their backs against the table.

Brandon, Ellen and Leslie escaped out the window, quick and quiet as little cats.

Alice picked up the sword Lord Ascot had discarded and took a ready stance in front of the dinner table. Jamie and Lord Ascot joined her Jamie with the other sword and Lord Ascot with a long carving knife. With a grim kind of humour Alice took hold of the wine glass behind her and when the doors crashed open she threw it at the familiar face of the Knave.

Unfortunately Stayne ducked but the glass did hit the man behind him and he gave a satisfying howl of pain as shards of gass and good wine got in his eyes.

"You're late for supper!" she cackled.

"Dear Alice, it seems the lunatics have been rubbing off on you," growled Stayne annoyed.

"Downal wyth Bluddy Behg Hid!" she said wryly in her best Scots, which admittedly wasn't all that impressive.

"You're quite mistaken, my being here has nothing to do with the Red Queen," said Stayne silkily moving a bit further into the room.

"That's quite far enough," Jamie growled threateningly.

Stayne shot him an appraising look.

"Another flame-haired protector? I wonder if the Hatter knows he's been so easily replaced,"

"You know nothing. Why are you here you gutless rutting son of a slurvish guddler's scut?" growled Alice.

"Such language, I appear to have struck a nerve," tsked Stayne, "I am here because I want the crown of Underland and you are going to get it for me,"

"I will never betray Mirana; you'll have to kill me first,"

"Such a stubborn girl, but I don't need you to betray your darling White Queen. Once Mirana learns that her Champion is being tortured at my hand she will do anything to save you, including becoming my wife,"

Alice grit her teeth. She couldn't refute that statement, she and Mirana had become good friends and if the Queen thought she could do anything to save Alice she would do it, and be unable to get out of it thanks to her Vows.

"You will have a bigger rebellion on your hands than the Red Queen, and this time you have no Jabberwocky to subdue them," she said instead.

"Well you have to admit with you running around slaying them owning a Jabberwocky would do me little good anyway, no, the rabble will accept my rule because Mirana will tell them to, and Mirana will tell them to because she doesn't want her precious Champion harmed. I think my first act as King will be to order your dear Hatter executed..."

Alice lunged at him with her borrowed sword and an incoherent cry of rage.

She nearly took Stayne's head off with her swing, but the former Knave of Hearts was too quick and he ducked bringing up his own impossibly large blade in a parry. Jamie had taken her cry as a cue and was already in the thick of the fray hacking through Stayne's little band of mercenaries and Lord Ascot wasn't being the least bit gentlemanly their Scottish ancestry showing through quite readily.

Lady Ascot was screaming shrilly as the defenders were beaten back and the mercenaries came pouring into her smallest formal dining room. Thankfully one of the mercenaries had the presence of mind to knock her out and put an end to the shrill noise.

"ENOUGH!" cried Stayne finally, "I have The Alice, we're leaving,"

Sure enough when Jamie looked up the impossibly tall man had the little blond warrior slung over his shoulder, no doubt unconscious. Jamie rushed forward recklessly and got a sound blow to the head for his troubles.

"Damnit Alice," he muttered to himself before the world went black.

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**AN:** Well there you have it. Please review!


	3. Chapter 2: Escape to Underland

**Darkly Dreaming**

**Chapter Two: Escape to Underland**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Alice in Wonderland**

**Author's Note:** Thanks to everyone who reviewed!

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Brandon Manchester may not have known much about what was going on in the dining room but he was certain it was bad. He was scared, scared of the men in the house and scared that Auntie Alice was facing them with only Uncle Jamie and Lord Ascot to help her when there were lots and lots of bad men. He had seen them through the crack in the door, they were...scary, like nothing he had ever seen before. Especially the big one, the one with only one eye, the sight of that man made his blood run cold and the hairs on the back of his neck prickle with warning.

There wasn't much he could do about any of this however so, with his mouth set in a grim line he began herding his sisters along the familiar path through the maze filled with red roses and into the tangled briars of the forest that Ascot Manor backed onto. They followed the path in silence for a long while stepping carefully to avoid tripping on roots or running headlong into rocks and trees, running where there was a long stretch of flat ground.

"Brandon," whispered Ellen tugging a panting Leslie along.

"What?"

"Auntie Alice said to go down the Rabbit Hole,"

"Yeah, so?"

"So! It's just a story! Grandmother said so! What if we get stuck? Or what if we get hurt?" Ellen said shrilly.

"We won't!" Lessie panted, "Auntie Alice said to go there, she would never let us get hurt!" said the youngest staunchly.

"Lessie's right, I trust Auntie Alice, besides what else are we supposed to do?" Brandon said with a firm nod.

"Look, there it is!" hissed Lessie excitedly, pointing to the top of a familiar hillock with a familiar old stump and a big wide hole at the base.

Before Ellen or Brandon could stop her Lessie had scurried up to the hole and dropped down on her knees in front of it, sticking her head right in.

"There's some light down there I think," she called excitedly leaning further in, before screaming, and with a whoosh of skirts, falling through the hole.

"Lessie!" cried Ellen.

"Come on!" shouted Brandon abandoning all attempts at sneaking as he dragged Ellen into the Rabbit Hole after their youngest sister.

They screamed, unable to help themselves, as they fell with a loud whooshing noise through a hole that probably shouldn't have fit them. They tumbled together in the tunnel beyond grasping desperately at roots that slid out of their reach to slow their breakneck descent. Soon the tunnel turned to stone rather than dirt and was lit up with torches and lamps so they could see that they were falling past shelves full of books and strange objects. They fell past a tea service, knocked over a pile of books and sent themselves tumbling end over end, bounced off a large ugly bed and were nearly squished by a falling piano that was playing a menacing tune on itself! When finally they crashed through a hole at the end of the tunnel they laid exhaustedly where they fell on the blessedly cool tiles.

"Brandon! Ellen!" called Lessie delightedly.

Her siblings looked down at their sister and found themselves looking past an upside down chandelier, to where their upside down sister waved at them.

They crashed promptly to the floor upon this realization.

"Ouch," Brandon complained.

Lessie giggled, both she and Ellen had managed to lose their pins and hair ribbons in the fall and their golden curls fell in tangled waterfalls down their backs. Brandon looked fairly normal, mild dishevelment being about on par for him.

They were in a large tiled round room with several doors and a table.

"Come on! I've found the proper door," Lessie said picking up a small key and turning it in a door not much bigger than a cat flap.

Then, with much wriggling, she forced herself through it and the door promptly swung shut again.

"Lessie!" Ellen protested reaching for her sister's stocking clad ankle even as the door clicked shut, "Come on, Brandon!" she said turning the key in the lock once more and trying to crawl after her little sister.

"Ellen, you won't fit, you have to drink the shrinking potion, and take a crumb of the cake that will make you grow!" Lessie scolded from the other side of the door.

"Lessie, that was just a story!" Ellen protested bonking her head against the door frame as she sat back.

The little door swung shut in front of her and she scowled at it, annoyed, as she rubbed the crown of her head.

"Well, falling down the Rabbit Hole was just a story too, wasn't it, and we've done that already," Brandon said reasonably, picking up the bottle of pishsalver.

Its faded label still clearly read, 'Drink Me'. Carefully he took a small sip and immediately began coughing violently.

"Brandon!" cried Ellen, afraid that her brother had inadvertently poisoned himself.

Brandon waved off her concerns and began to promptly shrink until he was about half his normal size and his pants and drawers had pooled around his ankles which were encased in his too large pinch-y dinner shoes. Grinning broadly Brandon scooped up his too large bottoms and grabbed two little crumbs of upelkuchen from the little glass case on the floor.

"Come on then, Ellen, or are you just gonna hang around here all day?" asked Brandon arching his eyebrow in a fair imitation of his Uncle Jamie.

Ellen huffed and scowled down at her brother, secretly enjoying the fact that for once he was smaller than her, but eventually stomped over to the table where Brandon had set the still open bottle of pishsalver and took a tentative sip. She then started coughing much like her brother had for drinking the pishsalver was rather a lot like eating a large amount of the spicy peppers Lord Ascot had imported from India.

She too found herself shrunken and her stockings, shoes, and petticoats were left in a puddle on the floor and she hiked up her too long skirts and strode to the door with all the dignity of a queen and held it open shooting a challenging look at her brother, who had the nerve to grin at her as he walked through.

On the other side of the door was the most amazing garden any of the children had ever seen. It was wild and overgrown and bursting with strange too bright colours, it was more like Auntie Alice's garden than any of the neatly manicured gardens in London but hers still paled in comparison.

"Whoa," Brandon said eloquently.

Lessie giggled as she leaned over her shorter siblings, her stockings, shoes, and petticoats had been unceremoniously discarded as well and her bare toes were curling against the stone of the path in excitement.

"No more running off ahead, Lessie, we have to stay together!" Ellen said imperiously before snatching her crumb of upelkuchen and swallowing it.

The cake was actually quite good and Ellen was relieved to find herself back to her normal size. Brandon followed his sister's example and ate his crumb as well tugging on his drawers and pants quickly and leaving his shirt untucked. He then rolled up his pants so they wouldn't drag and get in his way.

"Alright, which way do you reckon we should go?" asked Brandon examining the garden through narrowed eyes as if the answer would suddenly pop out at them.

"I don't know, how are we supposed to find the Mad Hatter if we don't even know which way to go?" moaned Ellen.

"Well we're not going to find anything just standing here," said Brandon starting off down the path, such as it was.

"Wait for me," Lessie squealed rushing forward to clasp her brother's hand tightly in her own.

Ellen bit her lip nervously but followed without complaint.

The children followed the path out of the garden and into a brightly coloured forest where the mushrooms came in every colour imaginable and grew up to their knees, the flowers scolded you for stepping too near and gossiped like old busy-bodies, the dragonflies breathed fire and often fought with horseflies shaped like rocking horses, and every so often a little green pig squealed across your path. Eventually the path forked with a giant gnarled tree at the centre and signs that read 'Queast' and 'Snud'. Following a long debate about which fork to take Brandon stood in the centre of the fork with his finger pointing out in front of him and spun around until he was sure the the ground was lurching and pitching beneath him. His finger pointed them down the path labelled Queast, and he began to trudge down the path not waiting for his sisters to catch up, although they did fairly quickly.

Being curious children they often paused to examine a particularly strange flower or creature but with dark coming on and not a soul in sight they began to get very scared. They continued walking, starting at every little noise until finally Brandon called a halt to their little march having found a little hollow between two trees where they could sleep. There they curled up together in a tight little bundle and lay quiet. Eventually though exhaustion overcame fear and the children slept with the noises of Tulgey Wood as their lullaby.

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**AN:** Your reviews make my day and encourage creative flow...*hinthintnudgenudge*


	4. Chapter 3: Jamie Seeks Help

**Darkly Dreaming**

**Chapter Three: Jamie Seeks Help**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Alice in Wonderland.**

**Author's Note:** Thanks to everyone who reviewed, favorited, and added this story to their story alerts! I'm glad you all are enjoying the story and so far have no complaints.

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Jamie Ascot woke with a groan and a violently throbbing headache, and wondered vaguely for a moment just how much wine he'd had with dinner.

"Coming around are we Mr. Ascot?" asked a familiar clipped, and, in Jamie's current opinion, much too loud, British voice.

"Dr. Pennyworth?" he mumbled confused.

"Yes, your butler sent for me when it became clear that you were all insensible, and I arrived just in time to watch the constabulary march out of here,"

"Constabulary?"

"Yes, do you remember what happened at dinner?" asked Pennyworth in his diagnostic voice.

Jamie furrowed his brow in thought and winced as the action made his face ache along with the rest of his head. He'd been planted a good solid right in the mug by the feel of it. Dinner...the massacre in the front hall...the seven or eight feet tall man...

"Alice!" he exclaimed attempting to jump from his bed only to find the room swimming and a chamber pot shoved into his line of sight at the last possible moment.

"Yes, Miss. Kingsleigh and the children were kidnapped by the same people that apparently made a bloodbath of your foyer, good, well you've still got that concussion but at least there is no memory loss, a day of bed rest and you may go haring off to save the young lady,"

Dr. Pennyworth explained when Jamie was finished retching.

"A day!" cried Jamie outraged.

"It has already been a full day since you were knocked out, Miss. Kingsleigh, at this point is either dead, in which case your haring off would be fruitless, or being kept alive for the nefarious plans of her captors, in which case she will likely still be alive when you are hale enough to make an attempt at rescue. Unless you think you'd be any use to her dead, doped to the gills, or vomiting in the halls?" said Pennyworth arching one thin black brow, "In any case I must see to my other patients,"

"Father?"

"Lord Ascot is in much the same condition as yourself, though he woke yesterday and had the good sense to remain lying down. Lady Ascot has taken to her bed with the shock of the attack and refuses to allow me to examine her, but she is in good health if the complaints of the staff are any indication. Mrs. Ascot is in similar straits, but Mr. Ascot has risen from his bed today and is ordering the authorities about with all of his usual arrogance and ineptitude. The Younger Mr. Ascot is well and proving a great trial to his nurse and tutor, but I am given to understand that this is the normal state of affairs," Pennyworth reported.

"The constabulary have, I take it found no trace of the brigands who raided the house and abducted Miss. Kingsleigh," it was a sighed statement more than a question.

"No sir, and I'm afraid they've all but abandoned the investigation, with no trace of the criminals, no ransom note and the state of the entrance...well, these men are clearly base creatures and I've no doubt Miss. Kingsleigh has met a most gruesome end," said Pennyworth with his usual straightforwardness.

"I doubt that, Miss. Kingsleigh is...unique,"

"Be that as it may, I would not get my hopes up,"

"The children haven't been found either?"

"No, again, there is no trace of them according to the search parties, though in this the constabulary were at least able to track them into the forest that backs on to the Ascot Estate,"

Jamie made a contemplative noise in the back of his throat thinking about Alice's strange instructions to the fleeing children. He hadn't heard all of them, but there was something about a Rabbit Hole...

"Dr. Pennyworth would you mind terribly giving a letter to Perkins and instructing him to post it for me with all due haste?"

"Not at all, I presume you are going to conduct your own investigation," sniffed Pennyworth disapprovingly.

"Indeed, though not alone if that's what has you in a huff, Doctor. I will prevail upon some old friends of mine and Miss. Kingsleigh's from our days aboard the _Wonder_ for their...unique abilities and aid," Jamie explained.

He reached into his bedside table and, carefully propping himself up with his pillows, penned two hasty notes sealing them before the good Doctor could get more than a cursory glance at their contents.

"I will come and check on you in a little while; in the meantime I will have some soup brought up if you feel you can manage it,"

"Thank you Doctor," said Jamie dismissively closing his eyes in a parody of rest while his mind whirled with thoughts and half formed plans.

He was trying to recall Alice's exact words, well, those he'd heard for certain in any case.

"_...the stump, the one with the Rabbit Hole...Once you're through the door find the Mad Hatter, tell him a man named Stayne has attacked us..."_

Jamie cursed under his breath at himself for not paying closer attention, where was this door? Who was the Mad Hatter? What did that mercenary, Stayne, want with Alice? He'd said something about a Queen and hadn't he also mentioned a Hatter? Jamie tried to recall...yes, he was sure Stayne had mentioned the Hatter.

"_Another flame haired protector? I wonder if the Hatter knows he's been so easily replaced?...I think my first act as King will be to order your dear Hatter executed..."_

Clearly Alice had met some royalty Jamie hadn't been aware of in her travels for the company and was now involved in some sort of contention for the throne. The Hatter...was this man perhaps a former lover? Alice had after all never married, though she'd had no small number of offers, including one from himself when he'd been younger and still more foolish. She'd always refused them with the same words.

"_I can't marry you...you're not the right man for me,"_

This was always said with perfect conviction, Jamie had always secretly thought that she'd met someone and fallen in love, but for some reason couldn't marry him. Perhaps this Hatter was the mystery man who held the key to Alice Kingsleigh's secret heart. That would certainly explain the ferocity of her reaction to the threat on his life...

Jamie shook his head to banish the lingering jealously from his thoughts, it would not do to dwell on it and grow bitter, he'd long since accepted Alice as nothing more than a close friend and a sister, of a sort. As he'd reluctantly accepted two others who had done the same.

John Gunson was one. An American smuggler and about two steps away from outright piracy and three steps ahead of the hangman's noose. He'd taken Alice in an unexpected raid on the British trading post and Jamie had spent three months chasing down the bugger and his ship. Alice had mentioned he was expected in port soon with a rich medley of cargo and that she'd wanted to go see him. The other was a child thief turned spy turned barkeep by the name of Trevor Drake. The three of them were still uneasy with the others, and they'd met each other all together only twice, but Alice brought them together and Jamie knew that where she was concerned they would do anything. He knew this because this was the case for himself.

"Mr. Ascot?"

"Come in Janie," he said shaken from his musings by the young maid's gentle knock.

"The good Doctor said as ye'd like some soup, sir," she said shyly eyes downcast.

"Thank you Janie, and thank Cook for me if you have the chance, did Perkins send off my letters?"

"Oh yes, sir, sent 'em with Charlie quick as ye please," Janie assured him.

"Excellent, if you wouldn't mind conveying my thanks to him as well..."

"Not at all, sir," she said bobbing a curtsy and fleeing the room.

Jamie picked up the tray she'd left tucking into the soup with gusto, firmly ignoring his lingering nausea and wondered at her sudden fearfulness. Likely she'd seen the damage he'd wrought to a few of the mercenaries with nothing more than a blunt blade and was now terrified of him, the poor shy creature.

Jamie sighed and rubbed at his throbbing head.

The sudden fear and deference exhibited by his father's staff was the least of his worries.

As he fell into a drowse he reminded himself that Alice was a wily creature and that whenever she was in some danger and he was forced to chase after her he always found her relatively safe and intact. Before he fell asleep though a niggling doubt sent him into a slumber filled with fretful bloody dreams...what if this time was the time he didn't find her safe and sound?

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**AN:** Reviews make me smile, I always want to hear what you guys think of my writing, plotline, characters, and I'm always open to suggestions about plot twists or pairings! So in other words, PLEASE REVIEW!


	5. Chapter 4: Alice in Chains

**Darkly Dreaming**

**Chapter Four: Alice in Chains**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Alice in Wonderland**

**Author's Note:** And back to Alice...this chapter is a tad darker than those previous but no actual torture as of yet. Thanks to everybody who reviewed, favorited, and is tracking me with story alert. Glad you guys like it so far.

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Alice woke with a severe pounding in her head and was promptly sick over the side of Stayne's horse. She coughed and sputtered as she bounced around but when she tried to steady herself she found that her hands had been clasped behind her in sturdy iron fetters and she had been slung across the front of the saddle like so much baggage. She had also apparently been left like that for some time if the bruised-all-over feeling was anything to go by.

"Awake at last are we?" Stayne laughed mockingly.

Alice groaned and retched again as the rhythm of the horse's gait sent the pommel of the saddle digging into her midsection.

"Where are we?" she managed to ask breathlessly after a long moment spent spitting the remnants of bile from her mouth.

She hadn't really expected Stayne to respond but then again he had always been arrogant enough to believe that once he had the upper hand there was no stopping him.

"A day's ride from my stronghold in the Outlands," Stayne answered.

"You have a stronghold?" queried Alice with due skepticism, wiping her mouth on her shoulder with some difficulty in an attempt to rid it of the taste of her own puke.

"I'll have you know that before my capture at the hands of the White King Iranor, and my subsequent service to the Red Queen I was the most successful mercenary in Underland. My armies caused the destruction of all the Courts save Red and White," bragged Stayne his eyes glinting with gleeful malice at his remembered conquests.

Alice's stomach turned, but this time her nausea had nothing to with the jolting and bouncing or her probable concussion.

For all of her other faults Iracebeth had at least managed to keep her Knave in line, in fact she was beginning to suspect it was Iracebeth's power for Dominion over Living Things that had kept Stayne by her side and mostly out of trouble. For Stayne at the head of the small army of mercenaries was even more menacing then Stayne at the head of the Red Queen's army.

"What happened to the Red Queen?" Alice demanded, "How did you escape exile?"

"Oh, she's safe and sound ensconced in one of the dungeons, she is after all still the rightful heir to the Red Court, if for some reason the White Queen is uncooperative I have several options available to me,"

Alice blanched, Stayne was right of course, if he could force Iracebeth to marry him he would be a King in Underland. She wasn't naive enough to think that the power he would wield would be as superficial as that of a monarch in Upland, and in addition it would be his issue that would rule the Red Court rather than Mirana's or even Iracebeth's. With a mercenary army behind him and his reputation preceding him Mirana, even if she did by some miracle not give in to Stayne and formed an opposition to his army, would have a difficult time overthrowing him.

"As to my exile, the Outlands were my territory for years, and it didn't take long for the Red Queen to relent and follow me in search of some of my old friends,"

"Stayne, it's getting on night and the men want to make camp," grunted one of the larger more heavily scarred mercenaries coming up alongside Stayne.

Stayne scanned the hilly scrub brush around them.

"Very well send a scouting party for food and firewood. We'll camp there in the lee of the hill,"

"Aye, sir,"

Alice was tossed unceremoniously to the hard ground where she rolled, clanking and clinking, and heaved up the pittance left in her stomach. She rolled away from the small pile and lay, grateful for the lack of motion; face down in the grass her back and shoulders popping occasionally as they settled into place.

The end of her chain was staked firmly in the ground.

Alice wondered absently if all good flunkies kept a set of fetters on hand for potential captives and hostages. Certainly Underland seemed to have an inordinately abundant supply of the damned things.

In a small mercy they left her legs free and even gave her a bit of space after Stayne had warned them that if they got too close for his liking they would not be pleased with the results of their disobedience. She was surprised that there was no protest from the men, after all it probably wasn't every day they had unlimited access to a pretty young woman who could barely fight back and she could feel their eyes lingering on her covetously. She'd caught a good number of them outright leering before Stayne had given his orders for the night. Apparently the mercenaries knew and feared what their leader could do to them and that the man did not make idle threats because as they set up small tents and well-used bedrolls with the practiced efficiency of any good nomad they ignored her presence and avoided her little patch of ground like the plague.

Soon night fell over Underland and Alice's stomach was growling for food as the mercenaries tore into the roasted flesh of some felled creature. Despite the fact that she knew the creature had probably once talked and laughed and had a family somewhere Alice's mouth watered as her nose told her that the creature's cooked flesh would be absolutely delicious.

Glad of her concealing skirts and the cover of darkness Alice relieved herself in relative privacy and then plunked down in the grass to try and get what sleep she could as she was under no illusions about the chances of her getting a meal out of Stayne or any of his mercenaries.

Lying in the grass breathing in the heady scent of night in Underland Alice couldn't help but be at peace despite the fact that her fetters were chafing, she smelled of vomit, her head was pounding, she was bruised all over, she was hungry, there was inevitable torture in the too near future and she didn't know if the Ascots were alive, her nieces and nephew had made it to Underland, or if she would even be rescued this time.

That was the true magic and madness of Underland. Its wild darkness enfolded her making her feel safe and welcome and at home allowing her to finally drift off into a dreamless sleep.

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**AN:** As usual I beg of you to Review even if it's just a few words of advice or a bit of harsh criticism. My creative genius, such as it is, subsists on Reviews...


	6. Chapter 5: The Vanishing Cat

**Darkly Dreaming**

**Chapter Five: The Vanishing Cat**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Alice in Wonderland**

**Author's Note:** Thanks to everyone who reviewed, alerted and faved! Hope you enjoy the chapter!

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Lessie woke to find herself curled in a warm ball of bodies with her sibs. It was actually rather too warm a ball. In fact, she was rather hot. Uncomfortably so. With much grunting and wriggling she managed to extract herself from the hollow and dust off her dress. She sighed in relief as the cool night air began to dry the sweat from her body. She plopped down on a log not far from the hollow. Huffing annoyed, she then set about setting her tangled mess of hair to rights, or at least neatening it enough to allow her to see.

A slight whooshing sound made her look up warily. Lessie stood and turned in a circle trying to locate the source of the sound. Just when she thought she had a good lock on it however it sounded in a completely different direction.

"Lost your way, have you?"

Lessie jumped, startled by the sudden voice and whipped around to face the speaker. It was a cat, curled up in a bend of a tree was a large purple-grey and turquoise smiling cat.

"I'm afraid so," Lessie said, her eyes going wide.

"It seems I am doomed to lead you through this exact stretch of woods, time and time again, Alice, run afoul of some poorly made pishsalver did you?"

Lessie giggled.

"I'm not Alice," she said.

The cat vanished with a whooshing sound and then his disconcerting floating smiling head appeared right in front of hers.

"No, I don't suppose you are, though you look very much like her," the cat said, visibly drooping, his smile losing that smug edge.

"That's what everyone says," said Lessie rolling her eyes.

"Are you acquainted with The Alice?" asked the cat.

"Oh yes, I've known her all my life,"

"So you could, when you got back Up There, perhaps ask her why she never came back to Underland, she promised Tarrant she would you know," the cat said hastily vanishing and appearing a little farther back.

"Well...no...I don't suppose I can," said Lessie drooping visibly.

"Nothing has befallen her, has it? That is to say, The Alice is still alive, isn't she?"

"I...I think so," blubbered Lessie, "But there was a man, and she told us to run, go down the Rabbit Hole find the Mad Hatter, only now we're lost and...and..."

The cat looked taken aback by the sudden fountain of tears.

"A wise little insect once told me that nothing is ever accomplished with tears,"

"Alice says that all the time, Absolum told her that, right?" she sniffed blinking.

"Indeed, I believe he did,"

"Then it must be good advice,"

The cat regarded her consideringly swirling around her as if he was taking stock of her.

"What do they call you?"

"Leslie Margaret Manchester, well, Lessie mostly," said Lessie, wiping her nose on her sleeve and detracting from the dignity of her statement, "You're Chessur, right?"

"Yes, how did you know?"

"She used to tell us stories about Wonderland, every night before we fell asleep,"

"She remembers..."

"Oh yes, I think so because it's exactly how she said it would be,"

"Who is us?"

"My brother and sister and me, Brandon and Ellen are here too, they're just sleeping," Lessie informed Chess.

"Well if you know the story then I suppose you know what happens next,"

"You take us to see the Hare and the Hatter?" asked Lessie hopefully.

"Yes, it appears as though I must,"

"That's wonderful! Brandon! Ellen! Wake up!" called Lessie delightedly.

"Less!"

"Lessie!"

There were shouts and squabbling but in short order Brandon and Ellen emerged from the hollow looking ready to do battle, whether with each other or with whatever had caused their youngest sister to cry out was yet to be determined.

"What's all the fuss over?" Brandon demanded.

"Why me, of course," purred Chessur appearing before Brandon and grinning at him.

Brandon stumbled back wide eyed.

"You...you're...the Cheshire Cat," Ellen stammered her eyes as wide as saucers.

"A pleasure to make your acquaintance,"

"This is Chessur; he's going to take us to see the Hatter!" Lessie exclaimed.

"Really, that is good news, I was wondering how we were ever going to find him," Brandon said scrubbing at his hair thoughtfully.

"As I understand it, The Alice is in mortal peril, again, so we'd best be on our way," Chess said vanishing.

"Oi where'd he go?" Brandon demanded.

"Coming?" asked Chess having reappeared a little way's up a hill.

The children raced up the hill after the cat who had the habit of disappearing and reappearing that was, at first, disconcerting. They quickly grew accustomed to it however.

"You said a man attacked you, what was his name?" asked Chessur suddenly.

Brandon furrowed his brow trying to remember what Auntie Alice had called the man.

"I...I don't remember, do you Brandon?" asked Ellen biting her lip thoughtfully.

"He was the largest man I've ever seen, taller than even Uncle Jamie, and he only had one eye," Lessie said helpfully.

"Stayne, that's it!" crowed Brandon triumphantly.

"Ilosovic Stayne," said Chessur eyes widening and ears flattening back against his round head, "Are you sure?"

"Yes, that sounds precisely right," Ellen agreed nodding.

"I think we'd best move a little faster," said Chessur.

"Do you know this man?" asked Brandon jogging a bit to where the cat now floated swirling in and out of mist agitatedly.

"Yes, and he is a nasty character, who has something of a grudge against your mother," Chessur said.

"He knew our mother?" said Ellen looking shocked.

"Why yes, he was quite enamoured of The Alice when she had infiltrated the Red Queen's castle disguised by too much upelkuchen and going by the name Um,"

"What does that have to do with our mother, our mother never went to Underland, she was a proper English lady, who didn't believe in such mad nonsense," Ellen said imitating her grandmother quite well.

"You mean to say, that The Alice isn't your mother?" asked Chessur ears perked.

"No, she's our Aunt," Ellen said.

"Auntie Alice took us in when our mother and father died," Brandon said.

"We were just little so we don't remember it, but Grandmother said it was quite the to-do, because all of London thinks Auntie Alice quite mad," Ellen explained.

"I see, and so she and your Uncle Jamie raised you,"

"Yes, that's right," Ellen nodded.

"How did your Aunt and Uncle meet?" asked Chessur.

"Oh, well, Uncle Jamie is Lord Ascot's youngest son, so Alice knew him from when she was supposed to marry Mr. Hamish, but she said she wouldn't marry Mr. Hamish so Lord Ascot made her a partner in Grandfather's company and she and Uncle Jamie sailed all over the world," Lessie explained.

"Is The Alice, happy?"

"Of course, why wouldn't she be?" said Ellen staunchly.

Brandon was shaking his head.

"You disagree?" Chessur purred.

"It's just...sometimes, she'll look out the window and she'll have sad eyes, and she never comes near the Rabbit Hole...I think she misses Wonderland a lot sometimes," Brandon said.

"I see," said Chess before vanishing again.

It was getting light out and the children had reached the edge of the forest but a melancholy mood had fallen over their little procession, and they lapsed into silence lost in their own thoughts about their Alice.

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**AN:** Alright, well I hope you all enjoyed the update! Next chapter we get to see Tarrant! Also we're coming up on the end of my pre-written chapters, so updates are going to get fewer and farther between I'm afraid. :(. As always, I beg of you to review and let me know what you think!


	7. Chapter 6: The Mad Dreams of Mad Hatter

**Darkly Dreaming**

**Chapter Six: The Mad Dreams of a Mad Hatter**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Alice in Wonderland**

**Author's Note:** Thanks to everyone who revied alerted and faved! Glad you guys like it!

_Italics_ = Dream Sequence

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_Tarrant was sitting on a hill facing Marmoreal in all its pearly white splendour. The hilltop was bathed in moonlight bright enough to see by, and everything turned to silver, black and blue. Colours that left him breathless because they reminded him of _Her_._

"_You won't find me there," said a laughing voice. _

_Tarrant was suddenly aware of a peculiar warmth at his side. He glanced down and to his left at the young woman leaning against him. _

"_Alice," he sighed out happily. _

_It was absolutely Alice, Tarrant would know her anywhere. Her hair was a tangled mane of silver-gold that twisted and fluttered like a living thing in the wind and she was looking up at him with laughing whiskey-turned-grey eyes. _

"_You're not real," Tarrant reminded himself before he could get carried too far away by the sudden rush of feelings flooding through him. _

_It had happened before with unpleasant results. _

"_I'm as real as you are," Alice said. _

_Tarrant shook his head violently. _

"_This is a dream, you're not the proper Alice, not THE Alice, you're simply Dream Alice," he said standing suddenly and preparing to walk away into a different dream, one that was less of a torment. _

_Dream Alice caught his hand before he could get too far. _

"_Silly man, just because this is a dream doesn't mean it isn't real...besides, it is a good dream," _

_Tarrant didn't know what to do. On the one hand if he walked away from Dream Alice he would feel terrible and have been terribly rude. On the other, when he woke up and she was gone..._

"_Won't you sit and stay with me awhile?"_

_Tarrant sat, still thinking bitter thoughts but unable to deny even Dream Alice. _

"_It's funny, we always seem to be having the same debate, is this a dream or is it real, and even if it were a dream, does that mean that it's not real or just that it's not meant to last?"_

"_It's real, I think, your Upland logic is not something even my mad mind could conjure from nothing,"_

"_So you simply conjured me from your memories, memories of THE Alice," smiled Dream Alice._

"_You are rather similar," Tarrant admitted._

_Dream Alice was rather a lot like Almost-Alice on the balcony in the moonlight on the night before the Frabjous Day now that he was looking at her properly._

"_I'm glad, I would hate to think, after all this time waiting, that you've forgotten me,"_

"_That would truly be impossible," Tarrant said vehemently. _

"_I'm glad you believe it is,"_

"_Why don' ye come back lass, like ye promised meh?" blurted Tarrant his eyes a distressed shade of yellow-gray. _

"_There are questions to be answered, things I have to do..."_

"_Aye, ye've said all this afore, ye said ye'd be back, ye said..." Tarrant broke off. _

_Dream Alice nodded in agreement. _

"_I did promise, and I will be back," _

"_Ye'll leave; ye always leave, never stay,"_

_Dream Alice tilted her head slightly apparently weighing the statement. _

"_You knew I would return Above, to my world, you told me so yourself... 'He left it dead, off with its head, and he went galumphing back,' she repeating affecting a terrible Outlandish accent._

_Tarrant nodded. _

"_That doesn't make it any less painful," he said in a small voice._

"_No, I don't suppose it would,"_

"_I've been missing you terribly,"_

"_I'll be back soon,"_

_There was something in her voice that Tarrant couldn't place. He raised his head to look her in the eyes and gasped at the destruction and ruin all around them. The moon was blood red and cast a hellish red glow over the land. Marmoreal was no longer a safe haven of light and warmth but a dark tainted menacing mirror of its former pure glory. Spreading outwards from the nightmare palace there was only burnt dusty earth and circling crows and vultures._

_Tarrant sat with Alice on the only patch of green as far as the eye could see which was pretty far considering the view hampering forests and thickets were now twisting bits of smouldering charcoal, lingering blood coloured embers and hot ash. _

"_How...Is this..."_

"_You think this is what is going to happen to Underland,"_

"_I don't..."_

"_This is your dream," Dream Alice insisted, "This has all come from your own mind, your own observations, you think this is the future,"_

"_How far into the future do I think this is?" Tarrant asked bleakly. _

_Dream Alice shrugged. _

"_Time can be funny in dreams,"_

"_Yes," sighed Tarrant resigned._

_Alice snuggled against him for a moment and Tarrant shamelessly buried his nose in her hair, since she was the right proper Alice size and incidentally the perfect size for smelling. _

"_Hatter," she teased, "Why is a raven like a writing desk?"_

_Tarrant smiled sadly and looked down into her wide eyes, whiskey coloured, and the right-proper Alice Eyes, untainted by the light of the red moon and as unaffected by Underland's burning as the patch of green grass under her._

_Without putting much thought into whether or not it was a good idea or not Tarrant leaned closer to Alice slowly getting closer until they were breathing the same air. _

"_I haven't the slightest idea," Tarrant whispered. _

_Dream Alice smiled back at Tarrant and raising herself up on her knees she took Tarrant's face in her cupped hands and pressed a butterfly light kiss against his lips. Tarrant's breath hitched raggedly and he froze lest his slightest movement startle Dream Alice into running away, running from him, running back..._

_Her lips were soft as velvet against his own and he longed to crush her to him and never let go. _

"_Alice..." _

_He breathed out her name as he always did in a half-whispered prayer as she pulled away just enough so that their lips were no longer meeting and Tarrant gazed up at her with half-lidded eyes._

"_My Alice..."_

"_Fairfarren Hatter," she murmured. _

"_Don't!" he begged his eyes popping open black with despair. _

_But Alice wasn't fading away and even as he gripped her tight she screamed and caught fire in his arms._

"_HELP ME! SAVE ME! HATTER YOU MUST FIND ME! IT HURTS!" she begged even as she screamed, her eyes wide and terrified. _

_She burnt like a live coal and her horrible pained screaming rang through the emptiness of Underland, already burnt to ashes. _

"_Alice! Don't...go...ALICE!" Tarrant pleaded and begged as he desperately tried to put out the fire._

_The charred husk of his Alice crumbled away into dust in his arms. _

"_NO!" _

_Tarrant cried out, a cry that was part a bellow of denial and another part a wail of unending grief. He was untouched by the fire, the blistering heat having died with Alice, and he was left again, alone in the burned out tainted ruins of a place he'd once called home. _

_"NO! ALICE! No..."_

"_Hatter," sighed the wind scattering what was left of Alice to the four corners of Underland. _

"_Hatter!" the wind whistled shrilly with no trees to mute it, sharp as it rushed over the razor edges of rocks and cliffs. _

"HATTER!" Tarrant jerked awake instantly.

It took a moment for him to register where he was and to realize that it wasn't the wind who had been calling his name but Mallyumkun.

"Mally?"

"You gave me a fright, Hatter, all that moanin' and shoutin', what's goin' on?" the Dormouse demanded her tiny white paws resting against her sword belt, as she glared at him with her beady black eyes.

"I'm fine," Tarrant said automatically, dashing the wet tracts from his pale cheeks and smiling weakly to illustrate the fact.

His eyes faded from orange to a watery grey-green as he took in the familiar sight of Tulgey Wood and Thackery's windmill and the Tea Party at which he'd spent most of his life waiting for Alice.

"Really Mally, 'twas just a bad dream,"

Mally pinned him with a skeptical stare.

"You were dreamin' about _her_ again, weren't you? She's not comin' back, great galumphin' girl don' know 'er back from front, she's forgotten Hatter, about all of us and she's not coming back!"

Tarrant shook his head to clear it of the Doubt that always sprang up in the face of Mally's cynical uncompromising view of the situation.

"She's coming back, Mally, she always comes back here, even when she doesn't remember," he said quietly.

"I don' wanna see ye get hurt Hatter, it's been seven long years, she's probably settled in with some Upland bloke and had a parcel of littluns, you should do the same, 'stead of sittin' here an' moulderin'" the Dormouse said more gently.

"I have to believe that she's coming back, Mally,"

"Aye, well, I wish you would believe it an' live yer life while waitin'," sighed the Dormouse.

"I am, would you care for some tea?"

Mally snorted but allowed him to brew her a cuppa and change the subject to the subject of her life, love and littluns.

Mallyumkun had married a clerk-mouse by the name of Basil and taken up residence in Marmoreal where she acted as a personal bodyguard to the queen. Her small stature making her invaluable in defending against sneak attacks, especially those involving pishsalver. She also had two daughters and a son at home and was blissfully happy. Unfortunately her own happiness had made her eager for him to get going with his own.

It wasn't that he did not want to be happy. Tarrant just felt he wouldn't be truly happy with anyone but Alice, the right-proper Alice, because she was, the only one who understood and accepted his madness, she'd even said that all the best people were mad. She made him feel...complete, whole, as if all his life he'd been missing some key piece of himself and she was it.

His dream was...troubling, to say the least, the more he thought about it in fact the more it worried him.

"Hatter! Are ye even listenin' to me?" Mally demanded.

"Terribly sorry, Mally. I've been distracted today, considering things that begin with the letter d you see...death, dismemberment, destruction, disarray, darkness...have you noticed anything of that nature?"

"No, everythin's been right peaceful since that bloke with the poison bugs,"

"Are you quite sure?"

"Yes! Ye've gone starkers Hatter if ye think fer a second a threat to the Queen could get past me!"

Tarrant dropped the subject but it continued to weigh heavily on his already strained mind. Something was very wrong with Underland, his mind insisted, something subtle. Something somewhere else. Tarrant frowned, and after Mallyumkun took her leave he spent the rest of the afternoon trying to decide whether it was worth it to abandon the Tea Party and his vigil to search out the potential threat.

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**AN:** There we have some Tarrant/Alice action, even if it was only a dream as well as an appearance from out favourite sword-wielding dormouse! Hope you guys enjoyed it, and as always please review and let me know what you think!


	8. Chapter 7: The Search and the Finding

**Darkly Dreaming**

**Chapter Seven: The Explanation, the Search, and the Finding**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Alice in Wonderland.

**Author's Note:** For those of you who were worried, check it out I'm not dead! I've just been really blocked on this particular fic, hopefully though, the next update will be way sooner. For those interested in Harry Potter please feel free to check out what I've been working on in the meantime *winks*.

As always thanks to everyone who reviewed, alerted or favorited! Now on to the story!

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Jamie was waiting impatiently for the arrival of Gunson and Drake. It wasn't a visible sort of impatience, for he wasn't pacing agitatedly or looking out the window every five seconds. No to the outside observer it would seem that Jamie was enjoying a relaxing day in the library reading a book on the good Dr. Pennyworth's orders. However this was not the case as the book in question was merely a prop to keep his family from disturbing him while he strained with every molecule of his being to hear the crunch of the gravel drive that would signal approaching horses.

He'd received an annoyingly short missive from Gunson the other day stating that he'd arranged to meet Drake and that they would arrive sometime today weather permitting. Well the weather was bloody well permitting so they ought to be here soon. It was only a matter of time after all before it rained and the only lead they had, the children's trail through the gardens and into the woods, was lost.

Jamie had looked everywhere for some hint of the mercenaries' trail but it was as if they had come in slaughtered the staff taken Alice and disappeared. There was no indication of either their coming or their going from outside the house. They had, quite simply, vanished into thin air. He was about ten seconds away from damning the danger and his rudimentary at best tracking skills and just following the trail himself. It had already been five days, and with each passing minute the chances that they would find Alice and the children alive and unharmed grew slimmer.

"Mr. Ascot,"

"Yes, Watson?"

Watson was his brother's stuffy aloof valet, but right now he was looking a mite red in the face as if he'd just had a bit of a run or had seen an improperly tied cravat.

"Sir, there is a carriage,"

"Finally! What kind of carriage? Why can't I see them from the window?"

"A high perched phaeton, sir, rented by the looks of it, and some maniac is driving," he said calmly with the suggestion of a sneer he was too well-trained to properly express.

"That'll be Gunson,"

"Yes, well, according to Harold, he made the turn onto the estate on two wheels and nearly ran down a pair of the gardeners. If he and his unfortunate passenger survive, they should be here momentarily,"

"Thank you Watson, that will be all,"

"Very good sir,"

Jamie snapped his pretence shut and rushed outside to meet Gunson and Drake.

True to Watson's report Gunson roared around the last bend, the rented phaeton rolled a good few feet with only two wheels, was righted, and hurtled the rest of the way up to the house stopping bare inches from the front steps.

Gunson jumped down gracefully his sun-streaked mop of blond hair in what looked likely to be a permanent sort of disarray.

"Next time, I'll drive," said Drake releasing his death grip on the seat with some difficulty.

"What took you so bloody long?" Jamie demanded.

"Any faster and we'd have been mince meat," snorted Drake getting down from the carriage.

"Do you know how difficult it is to find a rental in the middle of the Season when you're American and don't have any titles?" Gunson said snarkily.

"Decidedly not, seeing as I am British and my father and brother are Lords," said Jamie.

"Good, that means you should have some decent brandy on hand, after Gunson's suicidal attempt at driving I need the fortification,"

"This way," said Jamie leading Gunson and Drake upstairs to the small study he'd claimed as his own, his impatience warring fiercely with his ingrained sense of hospitality.

Drake helped himself to the decanter on the shelf and ensconced himself in one of the large leather wing-backed chairs by the unlit fireplace. Jamie gestured for Gunson to help himself.

"Thank you, no, I only drink rum,"

Jamie could have called in a servant and had him go upstairs and fetch a splash from his father's stash but he didn't want to delay and he wanted Gunson sober.

"Tell me exactly what happened, your letter wasn't nearly informative enough," Gunson demanded leaning against the mantel.

Jamie sighed.

"We were at dinner, the mercenaries came out of nowhere as far as the staff, the constabulary and I have been able to tell, they left no tracks anywhere outside the house. In any case, they came in, slaughtered a good many of the staff. Their leader was an impossibly tall bastard with one eye, name of Stayne. Alice seemed to know him from somewhere. She whispered some instructions to the children, herded them out the window in the dining room. Then we fought the mercenaries until they managed to get Alice, by then the rest of us had been knocked unconscious. They took Alice and vanished without a trace,"

"So we have nowhere to start looking," sighed Gunson, annoyed.

"Not exactly, Alice instructed the children to find someone called the Mad Hatter. Whoever this is he knows more about this Stayne person than us. If we find the children, we find him, if we find him he can lead us to Stayne," Jamie explained.

"There's a trail?" asked Drake.

"It's faint, beyond my abilities really, but it's there," Jamie said.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go, every minute we delay is a minute to long!" Gunson said.

Ten minutes later, dressed in clothes that would have made his mother swoon in horror were she finished with her dramatics and self-imposed confinement and armed to the teeth, they were ready to begin.

Jamie, Gunson, and Drake set out at a brisk walk around the terrace and down the smooth white stone steps to the outside face of the window in the dining room that overlooked the lawn and his mother's gardens.

The trail was faint but for someone with Drake's skills it was easily discernable.

"You said they left, following instructions from Alice," Drake prompted crouching beside the window.

"Yes, I didn't hear everything she said but there was something about a rabbit hole and a Hatter, I think they may have been caught by the mercenaries because it's been five days and we haven't heard anything. Surely if they'd reached safety this Hatter would have sent word?"

"Unless this Hatter can't be trusted," said Gunson.

"Alice trusts him," Jamie said annoyed.

"Alice trusts a lot of people she probably shouldn't,"

"Yes, like you, for example,"

"Enough, the both of you, I have their tracks, I know what I'm looking for, let's get a move on," said Drake getting to his feet and slowly tracing some invisible track across the lawn.

"Tell me exactly what you heard Alice say to the children," Gunson instructed as they trailed along a few paces behind Drake so as not to disturb him.

Jamie sighed huffily and glanced around his mother's garden, she'd never actually replaced the bushes of white roses the gardeners had planted, though she complained about it constantly. Maybe that was what he was doing here, not getting along with Gunson because he liked being antagonistic towards the handsome pirate. It was a lowering thought.

"Sometimes this century, Ascot," snapped Gunson.

Then again maybe Gunson was just a prick.

"She said, the stump, the one with the rabbit hole," Jamie said having committed the words to memory.

"Trail leads out of the garden, into the woods," Drake commented.

"Alice and the children often have tea parties in the wood, there is a table set up by the creek. They know them like the back of their hands. Maybe the rabbit hole is some sort of landmark for them. I don't know, I don't do any hunting so there's never been any reason for me to go into the woods," Jamie sighed again chewing on his lower lip.

"It's likely only significant to Alice and the younguns," Drake agreed not looking up from his perusal of the ground.

"Lovely, well with any luck that's where this trail leads, what else?" demanded Gunson running a hand through his unruly mop of blond hair.

"She said some more stuff, directions I'm guessing, but the next thing I heard was...once you're through the door find the Mad Hatter. She and the leader of the mercenaries were talking about a Hatter as well," Jamie explained.

"So, why are we chasing smoke in the woods? Why not just look up the Hatters and find out which one is Mad and knows Alice?" Gunson said.

"Do you know how many Hatter's there are in London alone, not even considering all the towns and villages between here and there?"

"Lots," said Drake before Gunson could answer, "Look here, I think this is the rabbit hole,"

"This is where the trail ends?"

"Yes, there's nothing that indicates they ever moved from this clearing,"

"Good gads, the rabbits that live here must be enormous," said Jamie kneeling down and trying to get a look at how deep the hole went.

"Check if there's anything in the hole, something they hid there?" suggested Drake.

"I can't imagine they would risk that, I can't see the bottom of this bloody thing," Jamie leaned in far enough that his broad shoulders brushed the edges of the hole, "Wait, I think I see something...there's a light-"

Whatever else Jamie would have observed in that moment was lost as with a most unmanly yelp, Jamie's left hand slipped into the hole and set the redheaded man hurtling down the rabbit hole head first.

"Ascot!" shouted Gunson.

He dropped to his knees and stuck his own head in the hole, latching on to a bit of protruding root to keep from sharing Jamie's fate.

"Ascot? James! Are you alright?"

There was no answer.

"Jesus bloody Christ," Gunson swore.

"Can you see him?" asked Drake.

"I can't see anything except that light he was talking about, the hole is too deep and he's not answering when I call out,"

"Alright, tie that to something sturdy," Drake said pulling a large coil of rope out of the pack he was carrying and tossing it to Gunson.

"Are you sure we can't just leave him down there?" asked Gunson.

"We could, but it would upset Alice, besides the children might be down there, they might have fallen in looking for Alice's clue and been hurt. That might be the reason they haven't been heard from yet," Drake pointed out.

"Damn, alright, this feels pretty secure," sighed Gunson tossing the end of the coil into the hole.

"Who wants to climb down into the deep dark hole?" asked Drake.

Gunson eyed them both.

"I'll go, I'm probably lighter, you stay here and keep a hold on that rope in case something comes loose,"

"Right," nodded Drake.

He took hold of the rope and nodded at Gunson.

Gunson took a breath and was grateful he'd had the foresight to wear gloves. He took hold of the rope lowered himself so that his head was just visible and his feet were dangling. Then he wrapped his legs around it and loosened his stranglehold on the rope just enough that he went sliding down a few feet before gripping tight again.

"Alright?"asked Drake, calling into the hole.

"Good, so far, this bloody hole is enormous," Gunson replied.

He loosened his grip again and went sliding further than he'd intended. It almost felt as if there was a wind below him and it was trying to suck him down. Though he was a good ten feet down the rope the light at the bottom of the hole didn't seem to be growing any closer.

Taking a fortifying breath he loosened his grip again and suddenly the rope went slack and he started to fall. He gave a surprised yell that seemed to be sucked back upwards and away from him as he tumbled down and down, past the dirt and rock of the rabbit hole into what could only be described as a torch lit chasm filled with objects that were falling more slowly than he.

He hurtled past books and ornate tables covered with lamps and candles, and was menaced by a falling piano that seemed to be playing a dark amused tune on its own. Once he'd been falling for awhile he hit a bed resting on an outcropping of rock. But rather than being stopped as he had hoped he bounced and legs and arms flailing continued falling until he crashed into something and then hit the floor with a surprisingly soft oof.

"Alright there, Gunson?"

Gunson looked up to see Jamie Ascot standing on the ceiling. Once he came to this realization gravity was no longer acting on him and he fell the ten feet from the floor to the ceiling or from the ceiling to the floor. He wasn't so clear on which it actually was.

He was just picking himself up when Drake crashed through the hole in the tiles to one side of them and lay on the ceiling stuck.

"Drake!" Jamie called.

Drake looked up, his face twisted in obvious confusion, and he too fell to what was now the floor.

"Ugh, that was not pleasant," Drake groaned rolling over onto his back.

"True but on the bright side, we now know what happened to Lessie, Ellen, and Brandon. Those are Brandon's shoes there, and those stockings must be Ellen's," Jamie pointed out excitedly.

"I can't believe there's an entire room at the bottom of a rabbit hole. That is madness right there," Gunson said.

"Not only one room, look!" Jamie said making a sweeping gesture with one arm.

Gunson examined the dimly lit room more closely and saw that the walls of the room were lined with curtains and doors of every shape and size.

_"...Once you're through the door_," said Drake softly.

"We've done it!" crowed Jamie.

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**AN: **Alright, you guys know the drill by now, let me know what you think especially of Gunson and Drake seeing as this story now contains the greatest number of significant original characters I've ever written outside a LotR fic. Next chapter we get to see more of the Hatter and our favorite kiddiewinks!

Please review!


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